South Africa - Why 588 postal workers lost jobs

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Johannesburg - A fake court order instructing the South African Post office to pay its employees R37 billion it owes them allegedly led to the strike that resulted in 588 people being fired.

After seeing the document, workers refused to work until they were paid “their money”. The strike started last month.

Investigations later revealed that the document was bogus. Charges of fraud and misinterpretation were opened against employees Bhekumuzi Nala and his colleague, known only as Mr Zondi, whose signatures appeared on the document.

Nala was arrested on March 14 and Zondi was nabbed on Sunday at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital in Joburg, where he is being treated. He is under police guard and will be taken into custody once discharged.

Nala is in custody and was due to apply for bail today.

The Post Office has fired 588 workers who it says were on an illegal strike, allegedly sparked by the fake court order.

Post Office spokesman Khulani Qoma said it had asked the workers to return to work.

A court interdict had also failed to stop the strike, and once all internal processes were exhausted, the workers were given dismissal notices last week.

“That gave the company the opportunity to fire 588 employees and replace them so that services could return. We are now working on the backlog of mail that was not delivered during the strike.

“The backlog was very bad as it was two weeks’ worth of mail that hadn’t been delivered. The strike happened in the Gauteng region, comprising Tshwane Mail and Witspos.

“If you impede operations in those regions, you really impede services, because interprovincial and international mail gets processed there. They had targeted us where it really matters,” Qoma said.